Photo credit by !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre, Western Cape, South Africa

Amakhala Game Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Egypt: Inbound tourism up 16.5 percent

CAIRO, Egypt – The number of tourists visiting Egypt increased by 16.5 percent in May 2015 compared with the same period last year, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt’s official statistical agency.

In its monthly report for tourism statistics issued Wednesday, CAPMAS indicated that 894.600tourists visited Egypt in May 2015, compared to 768.200 in May last year.

However, May figures of Egypt’s inbound tourism indicate a 3.1 percent decline compared with April 2015.

According to the report, the rate of tourists from Western Europe represented 43.9 percent, followed by tourists from Western Europe in second place at 30.7, Middle Easterners at 13.4 percent and tourists from the rest of the world at 12 percent.

Holidaymakers from Russia represented 73.3 percent of East European tourists while German tourists topped the list of Western European countries sending tourists to Egypt.

According to the report, the number of departing tourists recorded 888,100 in May compared to 776,500 tourists in May 2014, with an increase of 14.4 percent.

“The number of tourist nights spent by departing tourists reached 8.6 million nights during May 2015 compared to 7.3 million nights during the same month in 2014; an increase of 17.5%, “ the report read.

As for the number of tourists from Arab countries, it has reached 153,700 tourists in May compared to 124,900 tourists during the same month in 2014, an increase of 23.1 percent, the report said.

“The number of tourist nights spent by departing tourists from Arab countries, reached 1.5 million nights during May 2015 compared to 1.4 million nights during the same month in 2014, an increase of 5.7% and 17.8% of the total tourist nights,” the report said.

Egypt’s political turmoil following the 2011 January uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak has badly affected tourism sector; Egypt’s second most important source of national income after the Suez Canal provides direct and indirect employment to up to 12.6 percent of the country’s workforce.